Story: Decent into Darkness Probably is better to call it Descent into Madness considering it is set in a mountain called Madness, but it was too late when I created the cover photo that I decided to just settle with it. Loss of a good naming opportunity, I guess. It is partly inspired by the idea of joining up with different kinds of monsters that I explored in Cavern of Lust by Necro5. I felt it was better to have my own place to write a similar story, but with a little more angst, at least in the human/ranger route I'm focusing on. The interactive is mainly inspired by the DnD game/expansion Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark where it deals with a similar premise where you have to explore the Undermountain to defeat a threat to the surface world. I would be pleased to see other people write their own storyline with their own characters. At least for my own storyline, there is going to be some erotic moments, but I do not plan on having erotica scenes to be the sole focus. At the moment, I do not have this whole adventure in the current branch planned out other than the main character's motivation, so I will welcome any ideas or suggestions. If you think the barrier is too high to contribute, then let me know how I can lower the barrier. If you start with a new character, their motivations for entering Madness doesn't have to complex. It can be as simple as having the courage or foolishness to enter and explore, find treasure, etc. Current Storylines: Daeel Rodfin, a ranger who seeks out the soul of his elven wife, Elayna. He believes her soul to be trapped by someone or something in the heart of Madness. He stumbles upon a naked drow named Nathraena who is trying to save her sister from a rare, but deadly disease. Other characters met/heard of: Djarrus Bane (minotaur), Azgoth (dragon), Elayna (elven wife of Daeel who is "dead" but not really), Malril (Nathraena's sick sister), and seven mistresses of Madness (?) Araatris Hawklight, a female monk who is honoring the wishes of her passed-away master, Jamkas Milner, to find a powerful spiritual ring that is believed to be in the heart of Madness. She gets commonly called out being an "evil" drow due to her slightly grey skin and white hair, besides the fact that her ears aren't pointy. She meets a "undead" skeleton named Maxius who was once a powerful sorcerer.
Going to clarify some things brought up by 2pk13 in the comments: Are others welcome to offer other choices with this character? If so, it is difficult to have the Daeel do anything without knowing what is really drawing him there. Absolutely. Note that I have not planned that far ahead with this character which allows room for other to add their own alternate routes and allies. All we know is that he believes that his wife is trapped somewhere by someone powerful in Madness. It's intended to be vague so that I can develop and flesh out the story as I go or someone can create their own character who is the main antagonist. I like to think that Madness is the only solid (ha ha, get it?) antagonist even if it is a mountain. I mean, why did one of the 'Mistresses' choose Daeel and/or his wife to mess with? Is the Mistress from Daeel and/or Elayna's past? Understandably that may spoil the story some. However, perhaps create a post in the forum of Chyoa? or a separate thread 'with info' for anyone interested in contributing. Maybe. Maybe not. The mistress may have nothing to do with Elayna or they could be victims in their own way by a higher threat. I'll edit the first post and clarify some things more. I'll also put a summary of the current state of the substory (and future substories if anyone add to it). If anyone wishes to contribute whether it is creating a new storyline within Madness or adding to the Daeel/Ranger/Revenge storyline, please do. If you aren't sure whether your ideas are suited to the setting of Madness, you can message me or publicly announce your idea here.
Filling the role of antagonist fails to mean they are 'evil' per say; Instead they simply lead the protagonist to grow and evolve further... Thus pushing the story on. Point being "Madness" can be subsapient and still be antagonistic indirectly. For instance: Perhaps the entire mountain was powerfully cursed by a group of shamans eons ago. Since then it's legend has grown as has its power... such as "Sunnyside" is a "Hellmouth" in the Buffy story. That is a "land-curse" is sort of like an artificially created atmospheric 'low pressure' zone of the spiritual dimensions. Creatures of evil are irrationally 'drawn' to the zone and once they enter they are typically locked in. Like a stone well. However, if this is incorporated into the story, the Mistress holding Elayne obviously is capable of breaching the 'wall'. Perhaps all seven are capable of this. Thank you for creating the post! and answering quickly. I felt that would likely be your answer but wanted to avoid assuming. Plus it seemed logical it could help others. I probably will finish reading before I add anything. Simply to get an idea where the story is with classic 3 act scene... if it is anywhere, that is. Just to explain myself: I have read in short, that act one is the set-up, act two is 'half' the story. The third act begins when protagonist is ready for the final fight or with Daeel if he somehow frees his wife before confronting the Mistress responsible... but is compelled to still confront her. In defense of 'finishing' an arc; that fails to mean their story 'ends' there. IMHO that is what has made Marvel movies so popular is that minor 'plots' continue through any given marvel-verse movie and previously secondary or 'minor' plots become the new primary story arc. I just thought of an idea... one I would want to discuss first. It would be far from immediately obvious. Maybe one of the other Mistresses, Quavlara Do'und, have spent so much time there she has shifted her alignment to neutral or even chaotic-good and is 'drawing' Daeel to her. I would choose neutral initially just to allow for the character to grow in the future... and the lack of suitable role-models of virtue present. Quavlara is capable of 'stealing' Elayna away from the threat. However, doing so not only is immediately obvious to the Mistress {crystal explodes?}, but Elayna's body is teleported directly into the mountain in her funeral cloths and everything... thus her body in the city would 'disappear' from the townspeople. I just read the latest stitch... may have to be a wish spell. Say... After being tricked and trapped in Madness or a millenia or two, Quavlara Do'und, a former drow priestess of Lolth who lost her faith. Eilistraee, serving as the antagonist for Quavlara. She is still advancing her seasoning as a dual-wielding ranger because she is only neutral in alignment. However, practicing swordsmanship is a kind of 'dance' and hunter/ranger is DnD's Eilistraee; Therefore, Quavlara is still furthering her shift with faith to another drow deity Maybe it isn't Quavlara at all but Eilistraee herself who has guided certain events drawing Daeel here to help Quavlara shift more fully into chaotic good. This could tie into Nathraena Everhath's presence, perhaps for 'protection' from a prayer to her patron Goddess; Eilistraee 'rudimentarily' shows joining with Daeel and guiding him to Quavlara will help Nathraena heal her sister, Malril. Without being a priestess herself, Nathraena Everhath, or maybe she is dual classes as one? There is an advanced class for 'priest-thief/assassin', believe do I. Either way her connection to Eilistraee would be weaker than Quavlara's just from age alone. Mage/thief "assassin" may be interesting too. The Madness reads such as a place that anyone in single digits of 'season' should stay well away from. That justifying the presence of a mage/thief, dragons, and whatever else. From the beginning Nathraena is at least neutral, if not chaotic good, because while she mentions her own self-interest; That could easily be reasoned with a want to survive and enabling her to actually 'save' Malril. I mean, Nathraena is literally risking her own immortal soul to save her sister. The only emotion that can adequately empower 'hope' enough to overcome that fear, in my opinion, is love for another. In this case love for her sister. In addition, what has been written mentions Nathraena is essentially acting against the will of her clan for her sister. That is rather uncharacteristic of an 'evil' personality. So to summarize my idea for an additional plot or two is this: At the direction of The Dark Maiden, Nathraena is 'joining' Daeel and guiding him towards Quavlara Do'und. Eilistraee has already helped Quavlara to gain the ability to 'steal' the soul of Daeel's wife, Elayne from whatever mistress has him. From how the laws of this realm describes "true names" only a "wish" spell or some equally powerful and similar priest spell would be able to 'revoke' the other Mistress's claim on Elayna. My first choice, if it is acceptable, is the priest route or mage/priest route with Eilistraee assisting either way. Anyone who has played Dungeons and Dragons, of any edition, much knows how easily a 'wish spell' can become a curse. And from the description, altering the 'spiritual' laws of this realm and 'changing' Elayna's true name would give the 'gods' plenty of reason to 'twist' the spell at least slightly. This obviously leaves the entirely appropriate opening for starting a story arc; Perhaps of Quavlara demanding a favor from Daeel and Elayna, maybe Nathraena, and whoever else may get written in... Eilistraee may dislike it, depending on what the 'favor' is used for. Perhaps Quavlara is simply insuring her own survival by forcing them to 'eliminate' the other Mistress. Actually teleporting Elayna and maybe gifting a few weapons, armor, and/or items is also to ensure they capable of succeeding. If the 'party' is too small/weak, in Quavlara's opinion, then maybe she chooses to personally assist them. That of course, probably earning her favor with her new goddess Eilistraee. Maybe as a reward for Quavlara volunteering herself to go this far to help them is enough to even shift her alignment completely to chaotic good, thus allowing Eilistraee to grant a few 'divine spells' to her new acolyte. Of course, maybe these threads could lead to a few 'harem' endings. lulz The hyperlinks added are to Eilistraee's wiki page and the "drow" name generator I used to make the Mistress's name, though she can be something else maybe. However, that would make Eilistraee less likely to get that involved. I believe it is important to note, that Eilistraee is the 'only' fiercely good deity within the Drow pantheon. The only reason she remains in the Drow pantheon is because of her indomitable will to 'save' the drow species. Cannon has only established her within the Forgotten Realms setting, her history and nature are more in-phase with her extending her reach to any realm that has 'Drow' in it. As though the Forgotten Realms is the source of the "Drow" species; All dark elves in the omniverse fail to be "drow". I apologize for the wall of text but I hope it is taken as a compliment as what has been written inspired me to brainstorm and type out this much.
If the flavor of DnD is wishes to be kept, I suggest adding this http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_fiend within adding a cryptology of enemies, or neutral, that are encountered. And anything specific that is decided on in addition... or is special. For instance, with the shadow fiend fight. Preternaturally they have 50% concealment due to being incorporeal'; Meaning any weapons attack should miss as much as they hit. There is likely to be a few of them. Though if Nathraena is multi-class priest/thief=assassin then she may have spells such as "Bolt of Glory", or as a mage/thief magic missile, or a couple other spells both divine and arcane will 'negate' the chance to 'miss' the shadow fiends. Due to the spells 'automatic' hit. For those wondering, the disadvantage in DnD of automatic hitting spells, they are without the chance to 'critically hit' which will increase damage... depending on the weapon/spell used.
I am getting Neverwinter vibes from your idea which I wholly welcome. I should note that while I made the interactive inspired by the Forgotten Realms, it's not strictly adhering to it either. It wouldn't be fair for those reading who haven't played any games related to the Forgotten Realm (I've only played Neverwinter Nights 1/2). That said, Madness could exist in Forgotten Realm with deities such as Eilistraee as it is never specified, so that would be okay. Interesting fact, Nathraena is actually based off of the character, Nathyrra (Wizard/Rogue/Assassin), who is a companion in Hordes of the Underdark campaign. Nathyrra used to be an evil assassin before she converted to the path of Eilistraee and became good. I wanted a similar character that basically says: "Hey, I'm not evil, I just do what I have to do. Now come with me because I can't do this alone." Even though I haven't really specified supplementary classes, you can imply that Nathraena is similar to Nathyrra in terms of her multiclass. Generally speaking, we're getting into a lot of Forgotten Realm territory in terms of logic and history, which is fine, but I think it would be a good idea when adding a chapter to identify it (like Answer/Chapter Name [Forgotten Realm]) so that readers understand that the author will be referring to history that they may have to research on their own. I'll add this to the guidelines because it never occurred to me that contributors could adhere to the Forgotten Realm setting. With regard to the stories I've taken, I've been taking liberties with concepts in Forgotten Realms, like "true names" and the shadow fiends (appearance is already different). I haven't really researched any of these besides remembering my experiences in the game. As for your ideas, I'm actually on a very similar page but a little different in execution. I'll just leave it at that. Also, I wouldn't worry too much about continuity. Mistresses are established in Daeel/Nathraena storyline, but the female monk thread I created will have nothing to do with the mistresses (Unless someone wishes to add and establish a connection). You could even say it's an alternate timeline or something. Regardless, I'm not really picky about chapters as long as they keep the characters that are established are consistent.
I've modified the guidelines and also removed some rules that I feel aren't fair. I've clarified the "death is only a dream" guideline. I mainly added this for consistency sake where if the main character dies, the chapter can simply link back to the introduction chapter for that character. In the case of a suitable ending (BAD or GOOD), then you can imply it is the "ending" in regards to Madness and perhaps either continue the story if there is more to tell (e.g. A descendent of the main character or repercussions to the world). You can assume Madness is part of the Forgotten Realms and then refer to concepts and characters that are part of the history (e.g. deities like Eilistraee), but append [Forgotten Realms] to the answer/chapter wherever you contribute. You need only to append the identifier once and the rest of the chapters that are below are assumed to be part of the world. I removed the straight clause. Although it isn't my kind of thing to see two male characters engage in sexual activity, I won't judge. On other notes, I am focusing on the female monk, Araatris and I hope that storyline will be enjoyable and funny, especially with the guy who will be joining up with her. Just thinking about his personality puts a smile on my face.
I was planning to ask if lesbian sex is allowed, but I guess that is no longer necessary. I really need to catch up on Daeel's story...
Just to clarify my ideas/wallotext: As a goddess, Eilistraee, is able to support mortals in multiple realms {universes}. DnD's only conditional want is for 'enough' mortals actually worship the outsider diety. Thereby, bringing her/him into that realm's pantheon. I'll remember to hyperlink Eilistraee's name with her wiki page. I'll do the same thing with first mention of Drow, think do I. I believe as a species Drow tend to be bisexual and polyamorous. Drow clans are Matriarchal and men are second class clan members and barred from position of power. They worship Lolth, chaotic-evil spidery goddess, such as Egyptians do Ra and Ma'at... Ancient egyptians. As the rebel chaotic good goddess, I think it is a safe assumption that Eilistraee favors treating everyone as spiritual equals. Therefore, her followers, and especially priest{ess}es will likely follow suit. Maybe she supports monogamy as much as polyamory, as well. May as well hyperlink Nathraene with the wiki page of who she is similar too, for myself mean do I.
I'm not imposing continuity, but I'm thinking of having the monk storyline to be a few hundred years after the events of the ranger storyline. I still don't want it to be a direct continuation, but just make some off-handed references to some rumored history of the mountain like the mistresses. I think that will be fun.
Changed ally guideline to allow existing companion to be introduced with the character. Rule of three still applies. Edit: I wouldn't consider deities that guide the characters counting as a companion like in 2p1k3's branch unless they manifest themselves on the physical plane.
Just a bump. I've been slowly contributing to my story, mainly focusing on the Araatris Hawklight branch. I'm starting to regret using second-person to tell the narrative because honestly, these characters are people who have their own issues, challenges, and goals. It's hard to put yourself in their shoes in this case. I'd like to hear someone's thoughts on this, regardless if you've read this story or not, because I'm asking something pretty general in respect to characters who have a backstory that isn't relatable to the reader.
